ByteDance rejects Microsoft’s offer for TikTok’s US operations
The owners of TikTok have rebuffed Microsoft’s latest offer.
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What you need to know
The long, ever-changing landscape of the TikTok drama with the Trump administration at least has one chapter now closed: Microsoft. On late Sunday, Microsoft announced the news in a tersepublic statement. The full statement from Microsoft reads in full:
ByteDance let us know today they would not be selling TikTok’s US operations to Microsoft. We are confident our proposal would have been good for TikTok’s users while protecting national security interests. To do this, we would have made significant changes to ensure the service met the highest standards for security, privacy, online safety, and combatting disinformation, and we made these principles clear in our August statement. We look forward to seeing how the service evolves in these important areas.
TheNew York Timessheds light on the story noting that this leavesonly Oracle in the running– a company with public allegiance to Trump. ̶W̶h̶i̶l̶e̶ ̶a̶n̶ ̶o̶d̶d̶ ̶f̶i̶t̶,̶ ̶O̶r̶a̶c̶l̶e̶ ̶l̶i̶k̶e̶l̶y̶ ̶h̶a̶s̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶c̶a̶p̶i̶t̶a̶l̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶d̶o̶ ̶s̶o̶m̶e̶t̶h̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶p̶o̶p̶u̶l̶a̶r̶ ̶s̶o̶c̶i̶a̶l̶ ̶n̶e̶t̶w̶o̶r̶k̶.̶ ̶B̶o̶t̶h̶ ̶B̶y̶t̶e̶D̶a̶n̶c̶e̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶O̶r̶a̶c̶l̶e̶ ̶d̶e̶c̶l̶i̶n̶e̶d̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶c̶o̶m̶m̶e̶n̶t̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶N̶e̶w̶ ̶Y̶o̶r̶k̶ ̶T̶i̶m̶e̶s̶.̶
Update, September 14 (10:30 am ET):Oracle confirmed in a statementthat it is “part of the proposal submitted by ByteDance to the Treasury Department over the weekend in which Oracle will serve as the trusted technology provider.”
While no apparent reason was revealed as to why TikTok rejected Microsoft’s bid, the Times reported the U.S. takeover’s breadth would have to be significant for Microsoft, making ByteDance skittish:
The Chinese regulations helped scuttle the effort by Microsoft, which said the only way it could both protect the privacy of TikTok users in the United States and prevent Beijing from using the app as a venue for disinformation was to take over the computer source code underlying the app, and the algorithms that determine what videos are seen by the 100 million Americans who use it each month.
Oracle, at least publicly, has not committed to such stringent requirements.
The TikTok soap opera with Microsoftbegan on August 6th. The saga quickly spiraled into madness after that withWalmart entering the fray,Bill Gates chiming in, and plenty ofimpromptu demandsfrom the Trump administration (not to mentionChina).
For now, Microsoft appears to have dodged a bullet that may have been politically unpopular in the long term.
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Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central. He is also the head reviewer,podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been covering Microsoft since 2007, when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, laptops, next-gen computing, and watches. He has been reviewing laptops since 2015 and is particularly fond of 2-in-1 convertibles, ARM processors, new form factors, and thin-and-light PCs. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics, watched people sleep (for medical purposes!), and ran the projectors at movie theaters because it was fun.
